Face of Fury (Zoe Prime #5) - Blake Pierce Page 0,78

right choice. There’s no shame in knowing when to ask for help.”

“I am sorry,” Zoe said, after a moment of reflection.

Dr. Applewhite was bent over the pan with a spatula, scraping the edges of the pancake as it cooked. “What for?”

Zoe half-smiled. “You know what for,” she said. “I shut you out. I was spiraling and I did not ask for help. I turned your help away. That was wrong. I know that now.”

Dr. Applewhite flipped the pancake, then turned a sunny smile on her from across the room. “At least you’re asking for it now,” she said. “I’m glad you called. I wouldn’t want you to be alone with your concussion.”

“Thank you for not ignoring me,” Zoe said. “I was not always pleasant to you on the phone lately.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Dr. Applewhite said. She maneuvered the pancake onto a plate and poured a fresh serving of batter into the pan. “This is just what you do for people you care about.”

Zoe felt a sense of contentment washing over her, something she hadn’t experienced in a long time. Long enough that she wasn’t sure she ever had. It was like everything that had been disturbed had finally fallen back into place, and even though Shelley was no longer here, things could still be right in the world.

Her cell phone caught her attention, sitting on the coffee table beside her bottle of pills. The pain wasn’t too bad, and Zoe liked having her head clear; she ignored them and reached for the phone, opening up the screen and scrolling through a few pages.

It wasn’t an idle gesture; she was looking for something in particular. Down below messages from Flynn, Sheriff Petrovski, and SAIC Maitland, Zoe found it.

I’ll be here if/when you want to talk.

John’s words, from weeks ago. She wondered if they still applied. She had to hope that they did.

She stared at it for a long time as Dr. Applewhite continued working on her stack, cooking one pancake after another. Zoe filtered her out, looking at those words. She tapped the screen to open up the keyboard for a reply, then hesitated.

What could she say?

There had been so much time, and John had been patient for so long. She had pushed him away, just like she’d pushed everyone else. Things had changed now, even if she wasn’t entirely back to herself, and even if she never would be. She was recovering. Getting better. In more ways than one.

But what did you say to explain all of that time, all of that absence? How did you apologize for treating someone like they were unnecessary, when the truth was that they were the opposite, and that was why you were so afraid?

Zoe breathed deeply, counting it in. One. Two. Three. Everything else fell away: the sounds of Dr. Applewhite cooking, the purr of Euler as he stalked across the kitchen counter to investigate, the hum of life outside her windows. The dimensions of the coffee table and every button on the keyboard. Her mind quieted down, and Zoe searched for the answer that she needed.

In the end, it was simple. She wrote just one word, two letters, and sent it, putting her phone down on her lap as Dr. Applewhite brought over a plate of pancakes dripping in syrup.

“Thank you,” she said, and meant it for so much more than just the pancakes. Settling down to eat, she glanced at her screen, at the message that was still lit up there, giving her hope for the future.

Hi.

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!

FACE OF DARKNESS

(A Zoe Prime Mystery—Book 6)

“A MASTERPIECE OF THRILLER AND MYSTERY. Blake Pierce did a magnificent job developing characters with a psychological side so well described that we feel inside their minds, follow their fears and cheer for their success. Full of twists, this book will keep you awake until the turn of the last page.”

--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos (re Once Gone)

FACE OF DARKNESS is book #6 in a new FBI thriller series by USA Today bestselling author Blake Pierce, whose #1 bestseller Once Gone (Book #1) (a free download) has received over 1,000 five star reviews. The series begins with FACE OF DEATH (Book #1), a free download.

FBI Special Agent Zoe Prime suffers from a rare condition which also gives her a unique talent—she views the world through a lens of numbers. The numbers torment her, make her unable to relate to people, and give her a failed romantic life—yet they also allow her to